In recent years, medical professionals have used various types of methods to calm a patient who is undergoing or waiting for an important medical procedure. One example is the use of a skylight so the patient can have a view of the outdoors. While this is often very effective at helping to pacify a nervous patient, it is often not practical, especially in interior spaces without roof exposure or in shielded spaces used for radiological imaging or diagnostic equipment which often is required to be in completely enclosed and controlled areas. Other examples of needs for creating an illusion of a skylight exist as well.
One prior art method of pacifying a patient has been to create a trompe-l'oeil skylight by using translucent panels of an image of the sky and deploying them as a diffuser panel of the type typically placed in the grid below a fluorescent lamp used in a hung ceiling.
Such systems have been used extensively in the past and have positive characteristics, such as the ability to easily remove the translucent panel so as to allow for replacement of backlight lamps, etc. and the ability to eliminate the need for a drop-down door and the concomitant increase in mullion width that is caused by use of drop-down doors. These prior art systems do have several drawbacks. While they do tend to create a more pleasant environment, they often fail to trick the eye into believing it is a real skylight, and they often exhibit unwanted shadows created by the T-bar in the hung ceiling grid.
In the past it has been difficult to make a trompe-l'oeil skylight which has a shape which is generally non-rectangular.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved methods and systems for creating an illusion of a skylight.